canvia

I had an idea the other day of using electrolysis at the bottom of an extremely deep water filled shaft to generate gas bubbles that could be harnessed to turn turbines as they rose to the surface.

Whether that could ever be more efficient than other power generation methods I have no idea. I guess the initial construction and ongoing maintenance requirements might make it not cost efficient. It was a fun idea to think about though!

A similar service: https://www.foiamachine.org/

There was an interesting recent book that covers a lot of privacy vs technology concepts that are increasingly relevant. I'd highly recommend checking it out. It's a quick read.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Circle_%28Eggers_novel%29

iPhones have something very similar enabled by default as well: http://www.zdnet.com/article/four-privacy-settings-you-shoul...

The US gov posts public data divided by state here: http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm

From http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-04-07/u-s-dot-co...

The use of margin debt to trade mainland shares has climbed to all-time highs, while investors are opening stock accounts at a record pace. More than two-thirds of new investors have never attended or graduated from high school, according to a survey by China’s Southwestern University of Finance and Economics.

I strongly dislike Marvel movies. I have no respect at all for films that are released in 3D (and sometimes IMAX and IMAX 3D) when they are not filmed in 3D or using IMAX cameras. It is a pure money grab. Disney does not care about quality, they care about profits. The endless sequels and prequels and spinoffs are simply greed. They will not withstand the test of time. A decade or two from now, people will look back at Nolan's Batman series as the definitive super hero films of the day. They use real sets and stunts instead of endless poor quality CGI action scenes that move too fast for you to see what is even happening (hint: it's because what's happening is meaningless, but bright colors and fast movement stimulate your brain). Marvel exists to sell children disposable plastic action figures and made in China clothing that will fall apart before the next sequel comes out.

Children are marketed to and manipulated with cartoons and "happy meal" toys. It is insidious.

On top of that, Disney expends a tremendous amount of money on marketing to force their products into the prevailing culture. Have you noticed how many television shows have references to Marvel super heroes? Those jokes aren't because the writers are fans, Disney pays for them. Actors don't wear super hero t-shirts randomly. It's all marketing.

They are doing the same thing with Star Wars. There has been an insane amount of hype for the new movie and various spinoff products already. Quite frankly I am sick of it. I am not going to see the new Star Wars movie in theaters because this type of behavior should not be rewarded.

Disney buys up treasured parts of global culture and exploits them to death. It was heart breaking to see them do this to Pixar. Cars 2, Monsters University... just shameful cash ins.

To make matters worse, Disney doesn't even pay it's fair share of taxes on the massive income generated by these franchises: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-30412293

The only thing that you can do is to vote with your dollars and time. Please stop supporting this exploitative behavior.

The train of thought that has me leaning towards becoming vegetarian is along the lines of:

If an advanced alien species came to Earth, how would I want them to treat humans? How about in the case that they are advanced to a level that comparing their abilities and technology to humans would be the same as comparing human technology and abilities to that of birds or dogs or cows?

Would I want them to dismiss our primitive (from their perspective) nests as the work of an unintelligent beast? Would I want them to corral us into pens and feed us fattening foods before harvesting our bodies? Would I want them to feed us hormones and genetically modify our bodies to produce more milk or grow larger muscles for consumption? Would I want them to breed the outliers of our species to create extremely large and extremely small "pure-breeds" of humans as a novelty? Would I want them to dismiss our primitive verbal communication as nothing more than cheerful song and make no attempt at all to understand what we are trying to express?

Perhaps there are other correlating factors such as obesity that tie into these disparities: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/databriefs/db131.htm

With 80%+ of corn grown in the US being from Monsanto seeds, you can bet that there is going to be a lot of push back against this. Why are taxpayers subsidizing an already profitable industry? How many millions does Monsanto spend on lobbying every year?

http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/can-we-feed-our-world-without-mon...

That article has a lot of fear mongering about artificial sweeteners and then at the bottom an ad for "certifiedorganicevaporatedcanejuice.com". Maybe it's not the most objective source of information?

Relevant article: http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2013/01/lead-crime-li...

The mic would also record the sound of keystrokes.

Every news source is biased. Your job is to understand what that bias is and compensate. By following multiple news sources with different bias you can discern somewhat the truth of matters is as it lies somewhere in the center. Some outlets are more predictably and openly biased towards one direction.

I think bitcoin will be incredibly useful in the digital goods economy. Global digital marketplaces need payment solutions that transcend nationalities. If you create an album of music and want to sell digital copies online you should be able to accept payments from customers anywhere in the world using any currency. Bitcoin allows that to happen. If you want to create a video content channel and let people pay a monthly subscription there should not be any type of restriction because of what country the viewer lives in. All of these borders and constraints are artificial and unnecessary in a digital economy. If you want to create a digital service that operates entirely on the internet, why should you be restricted to using a subset of currencies? Bitcoin can be the transaction layer that makes all the human constraints irrelevant. Digital goods also offer essentially no cost of replication so the only real limitation on the size of the digital economy is the number of agents participating in it, which increases daily. The tools needed to create and consume digital products are becoming cheaper every year and more people are gaining access to them globally. IMO the future of the world economy is going to be increasingly digital, and increasingly created by independent producers. Games, books, education, movies, short format shows, PC and mobile applications, web services, photography, art, comics, all will be available to anyone in the world at very low cost and with no necessity for restriction. As I see it the only thing holding back this digital revolution is that consumers are largely ignorant as to it's existence and continue to support antiquated development and delivery systems. I do not think that the rising young generations have this impediment in their habits. What really seems to be missing is a global system for independent content discovery. I'd like to see a universal amazon style digital product aggregation and distribution system that only uses digital currency. The store would provide discovery and distribution (maybe digital currency exchange as well) to a global audience for a transaction fee that beats traditional payment methods. A wiki style product information page that allows users to provide additional product details and translations for localization would be interesting to see (while difficult to moderate).

tl;dr with bitcoin anyone in the world can create a digital product with nearly zero replication or distribution costs and sell it to anyone else in the world basically instantly. That infrastructure exists today but is underutilized.

The progressive faction of the Democratic party is pretty close to what you're looking for. Check out Elizabeth Warren.

Young people could have a lot of say, but they don't vote. The national dialog would shift a lot (IMO) if young people educated themselves on issues, got their peers to engage in discussion, and participated in the political process especially by voting. Right now politicians that pander to the majority do so to the people that show up to vote, which is older people.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Voter_Tu...

Could it possibly have anything to do with 85% of corn being produced coming from Monsanto seeds?

http://ourworld.unu.edu/en/can-we-feed-our-world-without-mon...

They do spend millions of dollars lobbying the government every year.

https://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D00000005...

Soy seems to be in a similar situation to corn.

I already do feel that way regarding technology (and consumerism in general). I think that by supporting FOSS such as Linux and the Mozilla backed projects you can vote for variety and innovation with both your time and money. I will happily switch from an iPhone to a Firefox OS based phone once a high end model is available.

Be the change that you wish to see in the world.

There are actually a lot of smaller companies making craft sodas that are of a superior quality to the mainstream brands. They typically use cane sugar instead of high fructose corn syrup, and come in a wider variety of flavors. Plain cola gets boring fast. I much prefer cream sodas and birch or root beers. Here are some examples:

http://maineroot.com/ (uses fair trade organic sugar) https://www.boylanbottling.com/ http://reedsinc.com/

Personally, I never drink Coke, Pepsi or Dr Pepper products any more. A large part of the cost of those products is relentless marketing, shareholder dividends, and large corporate salaries. They no longer seem to care about delivering a quality product. How can they sell something called ginger ale if it doesn't actually have any ginger? For variety and depth of flavor any money I spend on soda is spent on craft soda.

Came across this today, it might provide some perspective: http://waitbutwhy.com/2014/06/taming-mammoth-let-peoples-opi...

I would also prefer to have this option.

RIP

He made some solid music back in the day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Tpe1HEMVSM

Limit the length of bills and require them to be read out loud into public record in their entirety before passage.

Yeah this makes the end game too easy.

It does, but the producers of that product do not encourage the practice with (often sexually) manipulative television marketing.

There are many excellent cooperative board games such as Pandemic and Forbidden Island. Video games like Minecraft and Portal can be played cooperatively as well.

I am not into professional sports because they are inferior to other forms of entertainment. I have watched and understand pretty much every type of sport. My favorite is UFC. I also enjoy hockey but I would rather play NHL 94 than watch it on TV or in person.

Another thing I don't like is how little innovation there is in professional sports. It seems like I could watch an hour of highlights at the end of the year and see anything unique that might have happened. These games have been played for decades. With Twitch there are constantly new games with new mechanics and strategies and it's exciting to watch people figure out optimal play methods and new techniques.

Except for the games that are only carried on cable networks like ESPN, Fox Sports, NFL network etc. which you MUST watch if you are a true fan.

The hosts of many Twitch channels talk about their philosophies on life and interact directly with their fans to have meaningful discussions.

There are several reasons why I dislike sports.

Professional sports are expensive and inefficient forms of entertainment. What is your cost (and opportunity cost) per hour for sports? Compared to films, books, video games, or board games you are burning money/time on a completely passive experience. When was the last time you learned something about yourself or others while watching a sporting event? Do they cause you to think at all?

Sports create an "us VS them" mentality that creates division. I much prefer following space exploration in which the opponent is objective based and nature itself.

Live events are used as delivery mechanisms for the marketing of inferior products like fast food restaurants, poor quality beers, fashion brands, processed foods, etc. The mentality that "I must watch it live" is constantly reenforced, requiring consumption of marketing. The phenomenon of the sports bar further encourages consumption of unhealthy food and poor quality beer (leading to drinking and driving).

For those reasons I no longer watch any sporting events. Now I watch eSports on Twitch to get my dose of live entertainment.

One perspective on fracking: http://www.publicintegrity.org/2014/02/18/14235/drilling-rav...

Are most of their employees younger?

"Disclosing that information could only result in neutral or negative outcomes for me. It is not logical for me to behave in such a manner. Do you generally hire people that make illogical decisions?"

If they're asking you for detailed salary information like that the answer to the above question is going to be yes regardless of what they say. Don't accept that kind of abuse of information asymmetry. If they behave that way during the hiring process, imagine how they will behave once you have committed to the job. Find a better place to work IMO.

The government publishes transparent salary information for over 800 types of jobs, segmented by state. http://www.bls.gov/bls/blswage.htm

There's a pretty big difference between selective breeding within an existing species and injecting foreign DNA from a different species.